Literature has ever been a strong helper of the ministry. In the beginning of this movement it was customary, in connection with our public evangelistic efforts, to have a table placed near the door on which were displayed tracts, pamphlets, and books bearing on the truths of the message. After a sermon, this literature was advertized from the platform, either by the speaker of the evening or by another, and as the people passed out they were invited to examine the literature and purchase what they desired.
Later the Signs of the Times became a strong adjunct both in public efforts and in supplementing the efforts of Bible workers. This journal has been and still is a great evangelizing agency in creating interests as well as in bringing evangelistic efforts to a successful termination. The reading public like the Signs. An interested reader or hearer is often delighted to receive a copy. If the worker will mark some article with a blue pencil, the reader's attention will be directed to the article marked. It pays to take time thus to indicate some strong article you wish the interested one to note carefully.
It is a good thing to get interested hearers to subscribe for the Signs for a year. What can come into the home week by week that will do greater good than fifty such consecutive visits? It is like the visit of a preacher in helpfulness. It bears its message silently and positively. Many times people follow a trail of study that at last leads them into the truth. Then, too, its message is ever fresh. Its articles have a strong appeal, and one can read and re-read till he understands the truth. A club of this weekly journal coming to a worker is a great blessing and help in evangelistic work.
Our ministry can hardly render a church better help spiritually than to encourage the members to take a club of the Signs, Watchman, Present Truth. or Good News, to use among their neighbors. This forms an effective method of approach. It is often easier to interest one in our teachings by giving a copy of a missionary journal with a marked article than by any other way. So in our revival work among the churches, and in our evangelistic efforts, the use of literature means much and helps to produce results.
There are also many who once believed the truth, but for some reason have lost their way. A copy of one of these journals coming to their home might help these wandering souls, once members of the church but now adrift, to find a new experience. Literature has its appeal, and often speaks strongly when all other human agencies seem helpless. And one of the greatest services any minister can render a church is to place the Review and Herald in the home of every family of believers. Early in our history this was the policy of the General conference, and a worker was prized to no small degree according to his ability to sell literature and secure subscriptions for our periodicals. The Review entering the home of our believers is an indispensable aid in holding those who read its pages regularly to faithful membership in the church.
Washington, D. C.